Tuesday, July 31, 2007

You've just attempted to finish the sketch of a stair, floor, roof, ceiling etc. and you are staring at the dreaded "can't finish sketch". It might not be obvious but you can use the Tools menu > Review Warnings to track down the trouble maker(s). You can also pan the view with the scroll bars to make is easier to see the whole sketch as well as using the right click menu viewing options. This way you don't have to resort to the delete...undo...delete...undo...cycle to find the troublemaker(s).

Thursday, July 19, 2007

My friend David Baldacchino recently shared this with me and I can confirm the problem. If you link a dwg file that also contains an image file into your Revit project, Revit will crash when you save the file. You can link it in, but Revit will crash when you save. Ouch! This happens whether you save the dwg file in either 2004 or 2007 format. Tread lightly if you need this combination...good luck! If anyone has encountered this and found a way to defeat this feel free to share in a comment. Be certain to submit the issue to Revit support at Autodesk!

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

This is old but it trips up new users frequently. The language on the print preview window uses the following, Print and Close are the specific victims of this post.When you click Print, instead of sending the plot job to the printer it returns you to the print dialog. When you click Close, instead of closing the preview window and returning you to the print dialog Revit bails out of printing/plotting all together. As if you said, "Aw...nevermind, I didn't want to print!"

My present versions of Excel and Word (2002, too lazy to upgrade 8-) ) work similarly so I suppose this means that Revit is Window's compliant. Except that Word just prints when you click print where Excel returns to the print dialog. This doesn't change the fact that I frequently meet people who get tripped up by it.

It would be nice if the language of the buttons could be changed to be more obvious. Such as "Close Preview" and "Cancel Printing" assuming the actual results are not changed. If we could redefine the behavior as well I'd like to see Print mean Print and "Close" say "Close Preview" and close the preview window, returning to the Print dialog instead of bailing out.

Potaytoe...pahtahtoe perhaps...my 2.25 cents.

[Edit 04/23/09 - After using Office 2007 for awhile now I've noticed that the language is cleaned up for this. Print...prints and Close says Close Print Preview now instead. When you use Preview instead Print takes you to the Print dialog to let you make some choices. It offers Close Print Preview too. Much better and Revit ought to emulate it too.]

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Sounds like a daytime talk show subject? When you create a section view and then create dependent views using the new feature found in Revit 2008 you end up with some additional annotation that you may not really want to see. Like this perhaps...This also any view that would show the section annotation.

So we can try to use the "Hide at Scales Coarser" parameter to change this condition.If you select the views in the project browser all at the same time and then attempt to change the parameter you'll probably find that the parent view's annotation disappears too.

If you select one at time and change the parameter you'll find you can change some of them but not all of the them or you might find that changing one of them also affects the parent. I've seen both situations.

Interestingly enough, if you select the unwanted annotation in a view however you'll find you are able to change the parameter without losing the parent annotation along with them. I don't know why it should matter and it may be a bug that you can change them via the annotation element instead of through view properties but nonetheless it is possible at this time.

Naturally you can choose to hide them using the Right Click option Hide in View > Elements but you'll have to do this in any view you don't want to see them in.

Saturday, July 07, 2007

Ian has taken significant time and effort to share his knowledge of Revit on his new site Revit Zone (blogged earlier). His recent additions to his site make it a must stop for any Revit user thirsty for knowledge.

If you find his site useful be sure to let him know so he'll be motivated to keep up the good work!

This text was posted at BLAUGI regarding an interuption in service at AUGI.

First, apologies for the lack of advance notice on this subject.

Please be aware that the AUGI Forums [ http://www.forums.augi.com/ ] will be taken offline all day this coming Saturday (2007-07-07) from 08:00 AM EDT (12:00 PM GMT), while essential backend database work is carried out.

All going well, the AUGI Forums should be back online, sometime Sunday (2007-07-08) morning - 08:00 AM EDT (12:00 PM GMT) - 11:59 AM EDT (03:59 PM GMT). If that proves not to be the case, please keep checking back later in the day, as they will be brought back online as soon as possible.

Friday, July 06, 2007

The "Space Bar" is used a little differently in this version of Revit than its mates. As you already know, hopefully, it is used to flip certain elements and to rotate components. It is also used to toggle between Zoom/Scroll/Pan when viewing using the keyboard (SHIFT/CTRL) combined with the Middle Button or Right Click.

In Rmep it is also used to snap piping/duct to other related elements. It is used to match the size of the selected element and to orient to the correct workplane. It also assumes the same elevation of the element you intend to connect to. Here is an example of using the Spacebar to align a pipe with one side of a Double Wye Pipe Fitting.

Vertical duct/pipe (Risers) are very easy to place if you can remember to click the Apply button on the options bar.

When you sketch a horizontal run of duct or pipe and then need to create a riser pipe/duct you need only change the elevation and click Apply. Revit will create the transition/riser condition according to your M/P settings. Just be sure to allow enough elevation change to permit the insertion of transition fittings otherwise you'll get error messages.

If a warning appears informing you that the line is too short, you pressed Spacebar before you began drawing duct. Note that the Spacebar does not automatically specify the duct type. You must verify or select the duct type from the Type Selector on the Options Bar. Sometimes you need to sketch some extraneous duct to get a piece you really want and then delete the extra bits. Same for piping.

One tip for road...using Wireframe and/or Detail Level: coarse will improve regeneration times when sketching Duct and piping. Now, getting used to the presentation of these elements using those settings is another matter. Good Luck!!

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